Descriptive meta-evaluation. Case study of an interdisciplinary curriculum

This article describes an example of meta-evaluation in an educational setting. The meta-evaluation examined an evaluation of a community-based, interdisciplinary curriculum. The Program Evaluation Standards (PES), divided into the categories of utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy, provided a framework for the meta-evaluation. Utility standards address the information needs of intended users. Feasibility refers to the extent to which an evaluation is realistic, prudent, diplomatic, and frugal. Propriety refers to the properness of an evaluation in terms of meeting legal and ethical obligations. Accuracy pertains to the trustworthiness of evaluation data. Use of the PES as a framework for descriptive meta-evaluation of a single case illustrated the breadth of issues involved in curriculum evaluation and their interrelatedness. Furthermore, the PES helped to reveal strengths and weaknesses that served as starting points for further improvement of the evaluation.